Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine

Lauren Alli

Eli Whiney, Samuel Slater, and The Cotton Gin

"Father of the Factory System" is what Samuel Slater was called. He created the first efficient American Machinery for spinning cotton in 1791. The only problem it didn't solve was seeding the cotton. Eli Whiney played a huge part in the Industrial age. He created the cotton gin, which seeded the cotton, changed industry. It was created in 1793 within 10 days. It was 50 times more effective than the hand picking process. It also pushed the cotton kingdom westward.

New England

New England had terrible soil for farming. Industrialization was fantastic for it. They were also close to canals and the ocean so getting raw materials was no problem. By 1860 more than 400 million pounds of southern cotton, annually, came from over a thousand mills, mostly in New England.

Primary Source

We choose this primary source, to show the difference the cotton gin made to the production of cotton. Before Eli Whitney made the cotton gin, cotton clothing was very rare because it took to long to pick all the seeds from the actual cotton. After the cotton gin it was easier to de-seed cotton, making cotton cloth easier to find.